Texas officials have been watching carefully since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon for any impact on Texas shores, and now tar balls from the Gulf oil disaster have washed up on Texas shores.

Two crews were cleaning up tar balls found on the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island earlier this week and have recovered about 35 gallons of oil-tainted waste from the two locations.

Meanwhile, oil is reaching deeper into Louisiana. Strings of oil were reported Monday in one of two waterways that connect New Orleans’ Lake Ponchartrain with the Gulf. The once heavily polluted lake underwent a massive cleanup effort the spanned the last several decades, which allowed it to thrive again. Unfortunately, if oil reaches the lake, it may take many more decades before it is healthy again.